Roll # 1 Track Check +8 (vs DC 16) Succeed Find Evidence of lots of Dwarves
Roll # 2 Random Monster Check # 1 4 / 20 (2d10) Fail (+2 on next roll)
Roll # 3 Encounter A - 15% Location Roll - 2d10
B - 15% Monster (2d10) - Action determined (# 24)
C - 50% Location
D - 20% Monster (2d20)
Caventh was already stepping away from the party in the opposite direction as the dwarves went. There were so many boot prints from the various dwarven patrol, as this was not the start but in the middle of a long route they followed. The Ranger started to head down the pathway, motioning for his teammates to follow. The remaining members did as asked, keeping very quiet. Unnos motioned to Zounnos, his familiar, a winged snake to take flight, and watch their backs. Rillo and Unnos had small magicked devices that gave out a little light, but the rest of the party didn't need them.
The tunnel was approximately ten feet wide, and a little higher. They could have gone down side by side but the Jahlen led more than fifty feet ahead of the others and the others got into a standard formation zig-zag. Caventh's hoofed feet made barely a mark in the sand on the floor. Every few minutes, he disappeared going ahead to scout, then returned to tell them that there were smaller rooms ahead, none of them with little interest. They went down and passed the three rooms, all around 15 by 30 feet, and a quick glance revealed nothing, then came up to a turning corner, heading south.
They continued down the path, but switched so the Finder and commander of the party led. She went much closer to the walls, slower and a more deliberate step, she went around the corner and waved them forward. In the middle of the long passageway, was a 30-40 foot hole, and up from it many kinds of vines, with small bright colourful flowers. The vegetation didn't seem to match anything in the geographic region, much more vibrant.
Slowly continuing, Rillo turned to Caventh, `Is this natural?`
But it was their Sorcerer that answered, `Yes, it's called a bolt, a break in realities. It's not what we need.`
"It's not a portal?" Rilla asked, turning to Unnos. Caventh started moving closer, very slowly, he took out his large axe and scanned.
"I doubt this goes to another world. It`s most likely somewhere else here, on Nyssarria." Unnos explained, he closed his eyes and started to hum, concentrating. He opened his eyes moments later.
The Jahlen ranger came closer, and started smelling something...a wonderful bouquet of fresh vegetation, so many plants, and vines and flowers. The smell made him hungry for fresh food.
He hesitated, and as he looked into the jungle canopy, he swore he saw a pair of black eyes, staring at him, hiding behind some of the leaves.
The Ranger spoke in Elven, the most likely language of a plant based creature, welcoming the thing out. But it was not a puny, pointy eared humanoid, but a large, black furred ape, carrying a large metal sword, in a style of armor that he didn't recognize, walking carefully out.
His party members grabbed their weapons...but Caventh put up his arms to ward them off. He was not, a danger, or, not an immediate one. The ape held his weapon at bay, he growled something, and Vassano acknowledged in another language. the cleric held up his holy symbol, and there was no energy emanating from it. Not a threat, just not an ally.
'He's telling us to go.' the cleric said, 'very bluntly.' The ranger moved up, and grabbed some of the leaves to break them off, then brought them up to his mouth to take a bite. This was real, it was really there. When he looked up, he saw the ceiling. But when he looked down, there was a jungle. The ape shifted towards him, and he took a step back. Another motion in his periphery...this ape was not alone.
The cleric stated plainly, 'We don't need to confront him, he's not an enemy.' He looked at the ape, who had slightly moved towards the ranger, ready at any moment to strike him down
The Jahlen ranger stepped back, there was enough room on their pathway, then continued walking backwards. When he was safe, and passed the hole, he called out, 'Are you still seeing this?'
'What?' Rillo asked.
'Come over here and look at this!' Caventh said in wonder, and the human Finder slowly walked past, never losing the ape in her vision. But when she was three steps passed, the bolt, the ape, the plants, were all gone.
'Unnos, why are we not seeing it from where we are?' She took a slow swipe with her weapon, but there was no affect.
One after another, they all stepped past, and again it dissapeared quickly from their view. It wasn't just the view, Caventh heard, and smelled the bright living energy of this far away land. But now, none of it was there.
Unnos looked back and then added, 'The bolt is directional, it only works heading south, if we were to pass by it heading north...we may never have noticed it.' His eyes glowed brightly, as he hummed a spell, his eyes now cast a light outward. 'And there's no mana, no tell-tale sign of any magic anywhere.' He blinked, then moved back in the other direction, slowly until he could see the bolt hole again, he reached out to grab some of the vines, and tore it off.
'Toss me some of those plants again, very tasty!' the goatman said, most of his kin, the Jahlen, were herbivores, and those leaves were certainly fresh.
"How often does something like this occur?" Rillo asked, taking a few more steps away.
"Very rare." Unnos said, "But it can naturally occur. Many fae say this is how they travel between forests, but in small bolts. Not what we need."
"Vasano, what language was that?"`Rillo asked, turning to the heavenly cleric.
"It was a derivation of the natural Plant tongue. The Thornes taught it to me."`he said, "He certainly understood my reply." the cleric replied.
"Plant?" Rillo responded, "Plants talk?"
The heavenly cleric smiled, "No, but they do sing, a lot. Almost continuously in some places. You just have to know how to listen."
"Well we," the ranger replied, rocks thump. Like a drumming sound."
Their leader shook her head, trying to wrap her head around it. Then remembered her mission, "We have someone to find...move it!" Rillo said, and took the lead again heading south, again the tunnel turned, and lead to three smaller rooms on the left side. These, for the most part looked
like natural formations in the caves, they had sections that were more worn out, but, nothing seemed to be alive in them. The passageway took a sharp angle down, still passable but they needed to slow their pace to avoid tumbling over, the Jahlen again led the group.
As they headed down, he began seeing something on some of the stones. He leaned in to see some of the natural grooves filled with a pusy orange colour, then he looked up, scanning around, seeing a break in the rock. He motioned up to the others, then preped himself in order to jump. His people were considered the best jumpers, but normally it was to find footing during an escape or battle. His strong limbs let him take two small steps and bounce upwards, high enough to grab onto the upper surface and look in. Quickly he dropped the thirty feet back down to tell the others, "Slime trap. Follow my lead, stick tight to the walls." The party did as requested, staying very close to the walls. Caventh wasn't sure if this was a natural trap by some barely conscious slime creatures, or one set up by someone using these creatures.
Not long after the slime trap, they noticed the tunnel sloped downward again, not exactly a slide, but if one were too heavy or too fast that could always trip. Rillo took over, scouting up ahead, she motioned for the group to stay put. Coming back a few minutes later, she explained that there was a slime pit up ahead, and the passage way split off.
They took their time headed down the stone tunnel, as the slime trap was not natural, but it was fairly easy to understand and avoid. The pit they passed down was very deep, fifty feet down, and it was well designed as to have no notice before the drop. Rillo indicated she wanted to go down and see if there was anything left over, but Caventh hesitated. In other traps like this, it was used to capture and kill invaders, then take their equipment, and at that depth, most likely all but coins or magic trinkets wouldn't be able to survive the fall. The slimes in the pit did not seem to notice them, they were barely aware of anything other than their natural tendencies to slog and hunt.
They had two choices of immediate path, one going mostly west and the other immediate east. Since the west one had much more footprints from boot marks, that seemed to be the most logical. heading along, they found a much larger room than any of the other areas they had seen so far, when Caventh looked in, he reined the others over. There were benches, two aside and a dozen deep, all lining up with a small pedestal. There were no other symbols on it, so the group wasn't sure if this was a religious area or not .The area was in disarray, though no immediate signs of magic.
Caventh noted the four dark tapestries along the back wall, so faded, it would be easy to miss if one wasn't paying attention. As in the upper Tower, windows were up around fifteen feet, though no light was pouring in. The two tapestries on the outer rim showed generic battle scenes at first glance, the interior two showed elegant display of hundreds of rings. They opened them up, showing three mostly empty storehouse, containing broken items, books, small figurines. Mostly garbage. But the last one contained a cage, and in the center of the locked room was a solid, white stone statue of a woman held in chains.
Roll # 1 - Checking out the cage and lock
Roll # 1b - The Statue (DC 19)
Roll # 2 - Further check on the room (DC 13, DC 16, DC 22)
Roll # 3 Wandering Monster Check (6/20)
A - 25% Monster (2d10)
B - 25% Monster (2d20)
C - 50% Monster (3d20)
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